


In The Heat of the Moment

by EverAtYourSide



Series: Promptis Week 2017 [7]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: #jerks, Angst with a Happy Ending, But I guess that's kind of the point, Hunt Gone Wrong, M/M, Promptis Week, The empire has literally the worst timing ever, prompto is determined to protect noct at all costs, stay with me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-31 00:43:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12120840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverAtYourSide/pseuds/EverAtYourSide
Summary: The chocobros decide to divide and conquer and take on multiple hunts around the Chocobo Post in order to make some quick Gil since their reserves have gotten alarmingly low. What starts off as a run of the mill hunt, quickly turns into a potentially deadly encounter when some unexpected arrivals join the fray.





	In The Heat of the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Day 7 - Stay With Me - ~~Alternate Universe~~
> 
> I can't believe it's ALREADY the last day of Promptis Week...! D: It has been so much fun being able to share all my fics with everyone. Thank you to everyone who has been reading, giving kudos and commented on all the stuff I've posted, I REALLY appreciate all your support. 
> 
> I’ve been doing a lot of angst recently, and at first was like heyyy... I should probs do some adorable fluff to round out the last day of Promptis Week! But then, how can I get a prompt like “Stay with me” and not do something super angst-y? So yeah. Lots of Angst with of course some adorable fluff to wrap everything up, you’re welcome. ;)
> 
> Enjoy!

It was supposed to be an easy hunt for some quick gil because the group’s reserves had dipped dangerously low in recent days. Noctis and Prompto had been given the task of taking out some local throngs of voretooth pests that had started recently going after the chocobos, both the wild ones as well as the ones from Wiz’s Ranch.

Due to this fact, all four of the group decided that it would probably be the most effective use of their time to split up into two groups and that way they would be able to do twice as many hunts as they normally were able to get through in a single day. It was a pretty basic idea, so at the break of dawn on the following day, both groups set out to track down their assigned targets and planned to meet back up at the Chocobo Ranch for lunch. Which they would hopefully be able to afford with their new earnings.

“There, Noct!!” Prompto called excitedly as he was able to finally able to catch a glance of a young voretooth running through the nearby bush and back into a clearing that opened up near a large lake.

“On it.” The prince murmured in acknowledgement, executing a quick warp strike and quickly disappearing past the bushes, leaving a shimmering blue after-image in his wake.

Prompto quickly followed the raven-haired prince’s lead and emerged from the other side of the shrubbery to see Noct already in the midst of fighting the surprisingly large group of voretooths. Prompto summoned his gun and quickly joined in, making sure to stay back and provide cover for Noct when needed, felling a number of the creatures with a few expertly-aimed headshots.

“Noct another one out…!” The blonde laughed as both boys continued to quickly thin out the large pack. “Hey Noct…! We should do this more often… you and I are totally destroying these things! We’ll be able to make a whole ton of gil in no time, oh-! If we get this hunt taken care of, you think we could go and hang out with the chocobos while we wait for Iggy and Gladio to come back??” The gunner asked, unable to stem the excitement flooding his brain as he thought about the prospect of being able to spend the rest of the morning just lazing around the Chocobo Ranch.

“Yeah, sure. Don’t see why not.” Noctis called back as he jammed his engine blade through the neck of the voretooth that he had been fighting, the creature instantly falling still from the quick killing blow.

There were only a few voretooth left at this point and Prompto was just starting to think that they would be done and heading back to the ranch in just a few seconds, when he suddenly froze as he heard a familiar, mechanical whirring and had barely enough time to look up before his range of vision was suddenly consumed by one of the largest empire transport ships the gunner had ever seen.

“Imperials! Above us!!” Prompto yelled as loud as he could manage, praying that Noct would hear him seeing as the Prince had just warped away to deal with one of the fleeing voretooths.

Prompto was definitely not feeling nearly as confident as he had been moments ago, witnessed the absolutely huge mob of MTs that were now quickly unloading from the large dropship. _If Iggy and Gladio were here this would be one thing… but it’s just me and Noct right now, and not to mention we’ve never fought this big of a group of MTs before…_ The blonde thought nervously to himself, but before he could even come up with some sort of plan or make any kind of judgement about whether or not the two of them should try and lose the MT squadron, it seemed as though Noctis had already made the decision for the both of them as he warped right in the middle of the large gathering of MTs; thrusting his sword here and there attempting to target all the places where he knew they were the weakest.

_Well, here goes nothing!_ Prompto thought quickly to himself as he started running towards where Noct was currently hacking the MTs into pieces one after another.

“Let me brighten your day!” The blonde shouted as he shot off one of his special rounds from his gun which served to draw the enemy’s attention, inflict light damage over a certain area as well as weakening any daemons unlucky enough to be caught unawares.

After countless battles fighting against squadrons of MTs that _always_ seemed to find the most inopportune times to drop in on the group, right now being the prime example in Prompto’s mind; the blonde had come to know various ways to inflict the maximum amount of damage.

Taking a moment to dismiss his trusty gun, the blonde called forth the bulky, yet dependable circular saw that he had picked up along their various travels and ran headlong into the mass of gyrating arms and swinging weapons for a few well-timed and strategically placed recoil blasts, which reduced the Imperial soldiers to dust almost instantly.

Between Prompto tactically utilizing his circular saw and letting forth recoil blasts every few minutes and Noctis continuing to warp endlessly around the battlefield, taking the MTs out from behind as they were unable to follow the flurry of his engine blade as he disappeared and reappeared moments later; things were actually going surprisingly well, despite the fact that the two boys were vastly outnumbered and quite literally out-gunned.

When there were barely any MTs left, Prompto genuinely started to think that they might be home free. Prompto let forth another recoil on two incoming troopers causing them to fall apart, almost instantly disintegrating and causing the blonde to feel pretty good about their chances. But when the gunner turned around to check on how Noct was faring, he quickly noticed that the prince’s movements had become dangerously slow and he couldn’t help but notice that Noct was no longer warping, but instead electing to slowly wobble his way towards a nearby boulder.

“Noct..!” Prompto shouts as he quickly runs over towards the suddenly groggy and dazed looking raven. “Are you hurt?? What happened?”

“Wasn’t paying attention… used all my magic… stasis…” The raven mutters blearily as he waves the blonde off. “Just need… a quick second… then we can finish these bastards.” Noct finishes as he leans up against the large boulder, trying to catch his breath.

“Don’t worry buddy, I got you-” Prompto chuckled lightly, glad that the other hadn’t been seriously injured by one of the Magitek Troopers since neither of them had really had the foresight to bring any restoratives with them.

Seeing as their finances had been super tight the past few days, Ignis had been making sure to carefully monitor the consumption of their quickly dwindling supply of potions, elixirs and the like. That way, they could have some in reserve _just in case_ there was some kind of emergency and they _really_ needed them before the group had managed to procure any more significant amounts of gil.

The hunt itself was child’s play after all, so neither Noct nor Prompto hadn’t thought anything of it when they had headed off without any restoratives… they should be able to take out a group of voretooths without breaking a sweat.

“You sure you’re gonna be okay?” Prompto asked the raven once more before receiving another nod and wave of the hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Be right back, then!” The blonde grinned as he ran off to finish the last of the MTs that still hadn’t been defeated. It only took another minute or so for Prompto to take care of the remaining MTs with his saw courtesy of another few recoils. Once the very last MT disintegrated into a dark plume of smoke, the gunner turned his attention back to Noctis hoping that maybe the stasis effect had worn off, but instead he completely froze when he finally managed to get a good look at the definitely still winded prince.

Right in the middle of his chest were multiple dancing red beams that were trained expertly in the spot right where Noct’s heart was, and the prince was absolutely none the wiser.

_How the hell-?_ Prompto frantically thought to himself. _I just finished killing all the MTs, didn’t I? And we definitely would have noticed if another dropship had come by to drop off reinforcements… so where the hell did these snipers come from??_

Still having absolutely no freaking idea where or how the snipers that were obviously here actually got here, Prompto knew that he was going to have to act fast if he had any chance of getting Noct out of this situation alive. If even one of those bullets ripped through the prince’s currently weakened body, Prompto was sure that he would be dragging a corpse back to the Chocobo Post with him, that is if he actually managed to get out of this whole thing himself.

“If only Gladio and Iggy were here…” the blonde muttered quietly. Gladio would be able to jump in front of Noct to protect him and then he and Iggy would be able to make quick work of the snipers. But the advisor and shield weren’t here right now… Prompto was all by himself. He couldn’t protect Noct _and_ take out the snipers at the same time…

The most obvious strategy to the blonde would probably be to just take out the snipers as fast as he could, because no more snipers means no there’s no danger for Noct to get shot, right? Well that was all fine and good if there was only one sniper _and_ said sniper wasn’t covered head to toe in sturdy armor with the express purpose of defending against sudden attacks… but they were, so the gunner knew that he needed to come with some other plan of attack.

No matter how Prompto tried to rationalize things, he just couldn’t seem to find a plan that was solid enough for him to see both of them getting out of this completely unscathed. However, the skinny gunner absolutely refused to sit by and let Noct get killed while he could still do something about it.

Noct had always protected him and stood faithfully by his side since the moment they had started hanging out back in high school. There was absolutely no way that Prompto was going to let all of that go to waste now... now that it was his turn to protect Noct. He was one of his freaking Crownsguard for six-sake… he had taken an oath to protect the prince no matter what the cost, and the blonde fully intended to follow through on that oath.

Before his brain had even really realized what he was doing, the blonde set off in a full-out sprint, closing the short distance between him and the still oblivious prince. Right at the moment that he managed to push Noct roughly to the side he clearly heard the clear whistle of something being fired and vaguely felt a dull pain blossom in his chest before he hit the unforgiving ground below and knew no more.

* * *

 

Noctis could almost feel his strength and magic starting to return to his body at last when all of a sudden he felt something quite large practically pile drive in to his completely unsuspecting self and the prince found his body thrown harshly to the ground behind him as he heard something that sounded like a low gunshot and a gasp of pain from whatever it was that had just rammed into him.

“Ow…” The prince muttered before his brain suddenly decided to remind him of the significance of what he had just heard despite the pain of being thrown roughly to the ground. “What the hell-” he started to mutter, confused by the fact that he was pretty sure that he had just watched Prom finish off the last of the MTs a few moments ago.

Suddenly, everything seemed to click into place as Noct looked down at the fallen form of the blonde lying on the ground, a huge red stain quickly soaking his black tank top towards the bottom of his chest.

“Prompto…?” he muttered disbelievingly wanting to believe that this was all a dream… this had to be some kind of horrible nightmare, because he sure as hell knew that Prompto couldn’t have just gotten shot by some invisible assailant. No. That wasn’t an option.

Barely able to tear his eyes away from the prone gunner now lying unnaturally still before him, Noctis frantically started looking all around for the person responsible and eventually settled on the top of a nearby hill where he was pretty sure he had heard the gunshot originate. To his horror, situated up on the hill hidden amongst the varying foliage was in fact, a very small but unmistakable squadron of Imperial snipers.

It was this realization that caused something to snap within the raven-haired prince’s mind. Those snipers… they were the bastards that were responsible for hurting Prompto. And they were going to pay dearly for what they did.

As though it was some kind of gift from the Astrals themselves, Noctis could feel the stasis effect lift and his strength returned in full force. The enraged prince wasted no time in summoning all of his most powerful Armiger weapons and the small squadron of snipers were defeated in mere seconds.

Instantly warping back to the blonde’s side, Noctis knelt down and tightly grasped the blonde’s right hand, frantic with fear that he could already be too late. There was so much blood staining the blonde’s shirt and the blood had also started pooling on the ground beneath him, it was terrifying to say the least.

“You idiot! What the hell were you thinking??” Noct shouted desperately.

At the sound of Noct’s voice, the blonde slowly attempted to open his eyes, small, quick gasps of air escaping his lips as he attempted to try and make eye contact with the prince kneeling next to him.

“Sorry…” the blonde let out a low, sad chuckle, as he tried desperately to catch his breath in between the gasped words. “I’m s-supposed to protect you… c-couldn’t let them shoot you, my body… it just m-moved…” Noct could feel the blonde’s body start to shudder as he continued to try and explain.

Noctis could do nothing as he sat frozen beside the trembling blonde, wishing more desperately than any other time in his life that they had an elixir, a hi-potion, or hell, even a regular potion would be a miracle right now… but they didn’t. The two of them had been so sure that they would be able to finish their hunt and be back in no time, so they hadn’t brought a thing with them.

The raven was torn away from his thoughts when he heard a particularly painful sounding cough from the blonde beside him and noticed that Prompto’s eyes were slowly starting to drift closed.

“Prom..? Prom..!” The raven practically shouted. “I know it hurts and I know you’re probably really tired, but you can’t fall asleep, okay?” Noctis begged desperately. “You gotta stay awake, you gotta stay with me. I swear, I’m going to get you help, but you just _need_ to stay _awake._ ” He continued to plead. “We’re going to get through this, I promise; but I need you to work with me, okay?”

“Mhh…” The blonde muttered, his mind wanting desperately to fall within the comforting folds of darkness, but Noct apparently didn’t want him to do that… why not, though? Things were much easier that way. And yet, Noct continued to plead so the blonde decided that it must be important if Noct was so adamant about it. In that case, he would try to stay awake… for Noct, he might be able to do it.

Noctis thanked the astrals for the small favor that Prompto had just been shot in his side as opposed to somewhere that could have instantly killed him. If he could figure out a way to stem the bleeding and get back to the Chocobo post quickly, then there was still a chance that they would be able to save him.

“I’m really sorry about this Prom…” Noctis apologized as he quickly shed the jacket and shirt that he had been wearing. “This is probably going to hurt, but if I don’t stop the bleeding, you’ll bleed out before we can even make it back to the Chocobo Post.”

Prompto had been vaguely aware of the pain caused by the bullet wound even with his consciousness quickly fading, but the moment that Noct started to press his discarded t-shirt firmly up against the entry wound, he couldn’t hold back a loud scream that tore from his throat as he suddenly felt like a firestorm had erupted at the spot where he had been hit. Noctis visibly cringed at the pain-filled cries that were elicited as he had to keep pressure on the wound. He had to fight the overwhelming temptation to stop, even as the blonde writhed in agony beneath him, because he knew it would be all over if he didn’t. Noctis absolutely hated that he was causing the blonde any more pain than he was already it, but it was a necessary evil to save him.

Keeping one hand firmly on the now blood-soaked t-shirt, Noctis made quick work of binding the shirt tightly against the wound by tying his jacket securely around the blonde’s chest, so he could keep pressure on it while he carried Prompto back to the Chocobo Post.

“Please, Prom…. just hold on a bit longer…” Noctis nearly cried as he quickly, but carefully, lifted the blonde into his arms. “I can’t lose you…” the raven pleaded, his voice catching painfully in his throat as he was unable to stem the tears that had now started streaming quickly down his face. Knowing that ever second counted, Noctis hurriedly started the short trek back to Wiz’s, hoping and praying that Prompto would be able to hang on long enough for him to get the blonde the help he so desperately needed.

* * *

 

When Prompto finally started coming around, it would be an understatement to say that his head was nothing but a mass of pure confusion. The last thing he remembered was being in lots of pain, hearing Noct’s voice pleading with him not to fall asleep… more pain that seemed to consume his entire body… and then nothing.

Which was all the more complicated by the fact that although there was still a dull throbbing on the right side of his chest, he almost felt like he was floating on some really comfortable cloud, his mind aware, but not quite awake.

_What in the world was going on_? He thought to himself as he swore he could distinctly hear the wind blowing through the trees and birds chirping playfully outside. _Am I… dead?_ The blonde couldn’t help but let out a small whimper at the thought and not but a few seconds he was pretty sure that he could hear hushed whispers, but was unable to comprehend what they were actually saying. The voices slowly got louder as Prompto tried to figure out what they were saying.

“-waking up…”

“-been awhile…”

“-gone for good…”

“-he’s strong though…”

None of it made any sense, but the voices… they sounded familiar. Wait, was that…? It couldn’t be… he was dead, wasn’t he? And they… they weren’t.

“I-Iggy…? G-Gladio…?” The blonde barely dared to utter as he forced himself to open his eyes and see for himself what exactly was going on.

“He lives at last…!” The shield laughed lightly.

After taking a moment to adjust to his new surroundings, Prompto was just able to make out the large figure of the greatsword wielder relaxing at the small table that Prompto recognized as what must be the rentable RV located right next to the Chocobo Post.

“W-What happened…?” Prompto asked as the blonde continued to try and reacclimate to his surroundings. “I-I don’t remember…”

This time it was Ignis who replied, “Well, you certainly gave us quite the scare when Noct suddenly arrived back at the post in an absolute panic, covered in blood and with you in his arms. You were completely unresponsive, and least to say, we were very worried.” he noted softly as he busied himself at the small kitchenette available for guests if they wished to cook anything while renting the RV. “There was a point where we were concerned that not even a handful of phoenix downs would be enough to bring you back… but Noct,” The advisor motioned to the raven-haired youth who seemed to be sound asleep with his head resting on the side of the bed that Prompto was currently sleeping in. “He never gave up hope and hasn’t left your side since you two got back.”

The blonde couldn’t help but smile, but at the same time frown, because he knew that Noct couldn’t have been happy about how things went down while the two of them had been fighting the MTs.

“Do… Do you think he’ll be mad at me?” The innocent question left his lips before he had a chance to stop it. Prompto would never regret the decision that he had made, but he was pretty convinced that the prince didn’t share the same point of view.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Ignis replied softly. “He seems to be waking up himself, if I’m not mistaken.”

Just as Ignis had guessed, Prompto could see the signs that the raven was indeed slowly returning to the waking world. The young prince slowly lifted his head, blearily staring around the interior of the RV and it almost looked as though he was almost tempted to re-settle himself and go back to sleep when all of a sudden, his eyes widened as he locked eyes with the now, definitely conscious blonde.

“Prom…! How long have you been awake??” The raven practically shot up as he repositioned himself so that he could very carefully envelope the gunner’s shoulders in a brief embrace, before withdrawing, not wanting to do anything to agitate his injury.

“Not long…” Prompto uttered softly. “Pretty much just woke up myself…”

Just by looking at him, Noct could tell that something was off about the blonde and he was pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with the bullet hole in his chest.

“What’s wrong?” He asked quickly, “Are you still in a lot of pain? I’m sure I could convince Iggy to give you a little extra pain meds if that’s what’s bothering you.”

“No… no, it’s fine.” Prompto replied. “Well okay, yeah… it does kind of hurt but really, it’s fine.” He finished, trying to play the matter off, but then he noticed the looks he was getting from both Iggy and Gladio and knew that if he didn’t bring it up, they would. “I…I-I’m sorry… I know you’re probably really mad at me for what I did… but I’m s-supposed to protect you… and I guess as long as you were safe, I didn’t care what happened to me… are you mad?” he finished meekly, afraid of what the raven’s answer would be.

Noctis sat there and just stared at the clearly very distressed gunner. At first, he wanted to come back with a quick ‘hell yeah, I’m pissed at you,’ but that wouldn’t do any good now after all was said and done; not to mention, it was only because he cared so much about the hard-headed blonde. After about a minute or so Noct watched the worry and anxiety build in the blonde’s face and then he realized that he hadn’t ever actually give the gunner an answer.

“Well yeah, at first, I guess I was really mad…” he started saying, but quickly noticing the way the blonde’s face fell, he quickly added, “But I’m not anymore, really. I can be mad at the decision you made, but I’m not mad at _you_. Although, just because you job is to protect me, that doesn’t mean that your life has any less value than mine. So, can we agree that I will try to be more careful about paying attention to how much magic I use and you’ll leave the shielding me from bullets to the big guy who actually has a shield that is built to do just that?”

“Yeah, I guess I can do that.” The blonde could feel his cheeks starting to heat up, but couldn’t help but grin broadly as he tried and failed to stifle a loud yawn, despite the fact that he had literally just woken up a few minutes ago. “Damn… I’m exhausted…”

“Well, you _have_ been asleep for almost an entire day, so that’s to be expected.” Ignis noted as he now joined the conversation. “We do still have about an hour or so until lunch is ready… so why don’t you get some more rest and we’ll you up when it’s time to eat?”

“Sounds like a plan to me…” Noctis replied as he started pulling down the top sheet of the bed Prompto was laying on and helped the blonde to scoot over a little without agitating his injury so that he could curl up next to the slowly fading gunner and pull the cover back up so that they were tucked comfortably in the folds of the soft sheets.

“I don’t recall directing that at you, Noctis.” Ignis sighed audibly, and yet he couldn’t help but let the corners of his mouth curve into a soft smile seeing the prince finally able to relax for the first time since he had returned completely and utterly distraught at what he felt like he had allowed to happen to Prompto because of his own stupidity.

“Yeah, Yeah…” The prince mumbled softly as he nuzzled his head so it came to rest on Prompto’s upper chest careful to mind any tender areas. The two boys were quickly pressed up against each other, about as close as they could be while being sure not to cause the blonde any unecessary discomfort. It wasn’t but a few minutes later that they were both out like a light, Noctis being lulled to sleep by the strong and comforting beating of the gunner’s heart, reassuring him that he was still very much alive and would be there waiting for him when he woke up.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Comments are always appreciated. :)
> 
> Free to check out my blog on tumblr! [ever-at-your-side-15](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ever-at-your-side-15)


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